Isn't it critical to the understanding of the text that we understand Chaucer's intent in his use of different voices and his dramatic decisions ? The frames that Chaucer employs with his use of multiple story tellers can be said to contain both "closed" and "open" personaes, and I dare to say that there there is a danger of glossing over them and focusing on the Chaucer's framework for Canterbury Tales.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Lawton
"There are welcome signs that Chaucer criticism has begun to move away from personae to tone, and will try to accomodate the "telling difference" in a conceptual framework informed by language and style rather than the dramatic fallacy." (Lawton 4) While conceding to Lawton his vast superiority of knowledge on this subject, I'm not sure that I'm ready to "accelerate this movement".
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Carlos, what's the danger of dispensing with authorial intention? Does bracketing authorial intention impoverish our reading of texts? Does reading for authorial intention impoverish our reading of texts? Would it be possible to find a happy medium that might do both? What might such an approach look like?
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